Ed Mate calls it the most gratifying thing he has been a part of in his 20-plus years in the Colorado Golf Association.

The Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy is in its first season at CommonGround Golf Course in Aurora, and with the backing of a multitude of partners willing to see it take off, kids across the Denver area are learning life skills — and earning a few bucks.

“It has become my passion,” said Mate, the CGA’s executive director. “It’s our way to give back.”

Named for brothers George and Geoff Solich, who like most involved in the project were Evans Scholars at the University of Colorado, the concept has drawn rave reviews from the United States Golf Association, which provided a $10,000 grant. The program also works in cooperation with local nonprofit organization ACE (Alliance for Choice in Education), which works to give low-income families scholarship options.

“It’s a great partnership for us (with ACE), just how we are structuring the academy,” said Emily Olson, the CGA’s Evans Scholars recruiter who was involved in bringing in the kids. “We want them to fit the Evans Scholar profiles, so they have the good grades, financial needs and a place where we can get them in to start caddying.”

In its first year, the Solich program accepted 37 kids with the hopes of graduating 30 to local caddie programs at Denver Country Club, Lakewood Country Club, Columbine Country Club, Bear Creek Golf Club and some of the 15 other clubs in the state that have caddies. Cherry Hills, which has among the better caddie programs nationwide, is on board and could take as many as half of the Solich graduates next season.

“One of the intended consequences of this program is to fill the pipeline of caddies in the caddie clubs with candidates for the Evans Scholarship,” Mate said. “Because if you just let the normal process work to see who shows up for caddie training, you hope that they are going to be the right profile of kid. That’s kind of the passive way of hoping you are going to have enough kids in that pipeline. We are intentionally growing kids who fit that profile. You could say we are kind of stacking the deck in our caddie clubs.”

To graduate, the kids — some or most of whom have no experience with golf courses — must complete 40 loops at CommonGround over a 10-week session this summer.

Bradley Garcia-Garza, a junior-to-be at Mullen High School, has embraced the program and spends his weekends at CommonGround.

“I heard about it and thought it was a good opportunity,” said Garcia-Garza, who carries a 4.0 GPA at Mullen. “I’ve always wanted to learn about golf, and I thought, ‘Why not take advantage of something that is basically handed to me?’ ”

The perk — along with the money in their pockets after every loop — at the end of the day is that Evans Scholarship, which is a full ride to CU.

“That’s why you put in all the hard work,” Garcia-Garza said.

The program also is beneficial to the golfers, most of whom never have used a caddie. The money from the grants and other donations go to paying the caddies’ base rate, so if the players see fit to add on an additional tip, that is the only thing that comes out of their pocket besides their greens fee.

It’s something Mate said every golfer — most of whom associate caddying with “Caddyshack” — should experience.

“The truth of that movie is what makes it so funny. A lot of that story is as accurate today as ever,” said Mate, who also grew up looping in the summer. “A lot of it is the same: They carry the bag and probably have to avoid laughing when they see a bad shot or cringing when they see who they are going to be caddying for.

“But where this is different is the diversity of kids. We have boys and girls, all different ethnicities. That really reflects the melting pot of CommonGround Golf Course and that location.”

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